Aravo Solutions, Inc., a provider of on-demand Supplier Information Management (SIM) software and services, comments on what it feels are the top risks procurement teams face in 2009 as they manage supplier ecosystems in a down economy. Based on 10 years of industry best practices in supporting a community of over one million buyers and suppliers around the globe, the company identifies the following risks:
Reliance on historical assumptions
Disregarding obvious risks due to outdated data
Overlooking concealed risks due to lack of supplier knowledge
Underestimating collaboration and communication needs for managing downstream suppliers
Limiting risk assessment by relying on too few factors.
Recent reports have spotlighted the importance of monitoring supplier risk-from A.T. Kearney's new study forecasting that half of U.S. automotive suppliers could go bankrupt in 2009, to research from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimating that 100,000 Chinese manufacturing suppliers went out of business in 2008, to Aberdeen Group's February 2009 survey reporting that 58% of industrial and consumer goods manufacturers across the globe have suffered financial losses from supply chain disruptions over the past year.
